Your matchday programme

Bringing players through the ranks has always been high on the agenda at Wimbledon and tomorrow’s matchday programme features an in-depth interview with Under-21s coach Shaun North.

Shaun provides a behind-the-scenes insight into the club’s development structure, which was set-up last summer, and Under-16s coach Michael Hamilton reports on the players vying to make the next step towards senior level.

During his time in charge of Portsmouth’s youth set-up, Shaun helped Asmir Begovic, Gary O’Neill, Matt Ritchie, Joel Ward and Marc Wilson progress towards the Premier League and the Championship and he’s hoping to repeat such success at Wimbledon.

“Hard work was the key because we had poor facilities, even when the club was in the Premier League,” said Shaun. “We trained at a local school, but we trained four nights a week and played matches on Saturdays and Sundays. Jim Smith was my first manager when I was in charge, and he was brilliant.”

Shaun also talks extensively about coaching methods and his time so far at AFC Wimbledon since joining last summer.

Of course, the first-team feature heavily in the programme and Danny Hylton talks about finally signing for the Dons after being pursued by AFC Wimbledon in previous transfer windows. Though the club’s latest transfer deadline day was rather quiet, the AFC Wimbledon official Twitter feed went into meltdown, thanks to office administrator Chris Atkinson’s catchy tweets. Chris provides the inside track on how his work created headlines both at home and abroad.

Packed with other club news and features, the programme is priced at £3 for 68 pages and features Aaron Morris on the front cover.